FAMILY LAW LITIGATION RESOURCES

Introduction

Locating family law litigation resources on the Internet can be both exciting and challenging. Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet and the rapidly expanding acquisition of information, today's resources may be become tomorrow's trash. Due to publication deadlines the sites provided in this article are complete as of January 1999. It is hopeful that the information provided in this article will be useful to the family practitioner attempting to utilize the resources of the Web in his day-to-day practice.

Where to Begin

Internet searches can be particularly difficult because unlike a library there is no Dewey Decimal system. Instead, resources are catalogued by a number of web search engines.

Another large Internet search engine Yahoo! at http://www.yahoo.com. Unlike some robotic search engines, which systematically catalog every site they can locate, Yahoo! is a well organized and diverse directory
compiled from individual submissions, which may be searched by key words or by navigating its directory tree.

Meta Search Engine Tools

One of my favorite tools for searching the Internet is WebFerret, available as a demo at http://www.ferretsoft.com. This program quickly runs your search through a number of different search engines and lists the results in a columnar fashion. The best meta search engine software that I have discovered is WebSeeker Legal Edition, located at http://www.ffg.com. This program is extremely fast and enables you to
launch your search across multiple internet databases, either directly from its interface or by highlighting a word or phrase in a document. WebSeeker Legal Edition sells for $149.00 and has a demo version. (Disclosure: the company provided the author with a demo key.)

Search-Engine Language - Boolean Basics

To make your search easier, use these Boolean Basics to eliminate hours of unnecessary research and place you closer to the specific relevant sites you are trying to access. The basic Boolean terms are "AND," "OR," "NOT," "NEAR," and "Parentheses ()."

AND: The use of the word "AND" ensures that the terms you specifically request appear on the selected sites. In other words, "law AND familylaw" will shorten your search to pages on the Web which are restricted to Familylaw, not just law in general.

OR: If you are searching for two specific terms, use the word "OR" between both terms. An example would be "Custody OR Divorce." Then you will have access to both types of law.

NOT: The use of the word "NOT" will eliminate certain words from your search selections. In the event you know that you do not need the Texas Child Support Guidelines, while researching custody issues, use of the word "NOT" in conjunction with the words "TEXAS CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES" narrows your selections to the more specific sources.

NEAR: Each Search Engine recognizes the use of the word "NEAR" differently and a few sources do not let the user utilize it at all. Use of the work "NEAR" lets the users find words located within a certain number of characters of each other.

PARENTHESES: Using parentheses () will enable you to further eliminate unnecessary material from your search. An example of the use of parentheses is "NOT (support AND visitation)" This will organize your search to avoid pages with either support or visitation references.

In his book "The Insiders Guide to Mental Health Resources Online" published by Guilford Press, John M. Grohol summarizes the search tools as follows at page 23:

Search Engines and the Search Tools They Support

0perators

AND

OR

NOT

Proximity

Phrase

Inclusion/Exclusion

Wild-Cards

Fields

AltaVista(Basic)

N/A2

default3

N/A

N/A

"..."

+ /

*

host: image:link: text:title: Ud:

AltaVista(Advanced)

andor &

or

not

near

"..."or (...)

+/

*

Same

Excite

and

or

andnot

N/A

(...)

+/

N/A

N/A

Infoseek

N/A

default

N/A

[....]

"..."

+ /

N/A

N/A

InfoseekUltra

and

default

not

adj

"..."

+/

N/A

link: site:url: title:

Lycos

Form based4

N/A

N/A

N/A

&

N/A

Open Text

default

or

butnot

near

Form

N/A

N/A

anywhere:summary:title: firstheading: Url:

Webcrawler

and

default

not

adi ornear

"..."

N/A

N/A

N/A

Notes:Different search engines use different combinations of terms to get the same result. For example, Alta Vista uses just plain not, while Excite requires the words and not to be used instead. Within individual search engines, they may also allow different operators to get the same result (e.g., AltaVista allows you to use either and or the ampersand symbol (&) to specify the Boolean term and).

1Field -- Search engines may allow searching on technical fields such as anchor, applet, or host, which are not relevant for most readers.

2N/A -- Not applicable. This operator is not supported by this search engine.

3Default -- This is the default operator used when you type In two words together. For example, "teenage depression" will be searched for as "teenage or depression" in AltaVista, but Open Text will interpret the query as "teenage and depression".

4Form based -- Lycos uses a specialized form you fill out on their Web site in order to specify these options.

Governmental Data Bases for Family Lawyers

Often individuals in the divorce process require information regarding social security benefits and other such information. The Department of Health and Human Services is located at http://www.hhs.gov. Social security information can be found at http://www.ssa.gov. Because of security issues, the Social Security Administration will provide your Personal Earnings Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES) by mail in four weeks. Additional sites with valuable information are the Department of Commerce Census Bureau's online look-up service at http://cedr.lbl.gov/cdrom/doc/lookup_doc.html; the U.S. Bureau of Census at http://www.census.gov; the Treasury Department's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation at http://www.pbgc.gov (for information regarding guaranteed pensions) and the Department of Treasury at http://www.ustreas.gov. http://www.Fed2u.com/ seeks to be a one-stop shopping place for federal data. Finally, a federal site that provides all you want to know and more can be found at http://www.fedstats.gov.

Family Law Related Sites

One of the leading jump sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) is DivorceNet, located at http://www.DivorceNet.com. DivorceNet provides both divorce and post-divorce information and assistance with a state by state resource center, a reading room
and library. This excellent site contains information regarding military personnel and federal employees, marital assets searches, paternity establishment, international paternal abduction information and a number of topical areas regarding custody, financial, grandparent and child removal issues.

Another outstanding site, and one of my favorites, is http://www.versuslaw.com which contains recent Texas Appellate decisions and an easy to use search engine. This database is now charging for their services. Another comprehensive site is http://www.divorce-online.com.

The Texas Family Law Organizations

The author is proud to have contributed to a number of local and state bar associations for the various Texas family law organizations. With the outstanding work of Marilyn Gore, our faithful and dedicated Web Designer and guidance from the internet surfer Harry Tindall and the historian of all universal matters Richard Orsinger, the folowing web pages have enriched the family law practitioner.

The very continuous organizational Texas website was the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, affectionately known as TAFLS. For the first time we had a site that provided not only current information for Texas Family Lawyers and even a chat area to ask about current legal issues, but also a searchable database containing e-mail addresses and other contact information of Texas Family Law Specialists who are members of TAFLS. The site is found at http://www.tafls.org. (I am ignoring the State Bar of Texas abortive privatized family law informational site, which after much attempt to get going had the plug pulled).

The second site was an even more ambitious project: the State Bar of Texas Famiy Law Section. This project, because of the vast resources and committee structure, was a tremendous undertaking. The result, in my humble opinion, is one of the outstanding Sections sites in the nation and beautifully created. Visit it at http://www.sbotfam.org.

Commercial Research Libraries

Recently the pre-eminent commercial sites Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw have gone to internet services. These sites are commercially based and provide a service to the general and family law practitioner. The rates vary and the State Bar of Texas provides reduced rates (buying in bulk) for the small firm or individual practitioner. The days of libraries of old books filling racks of shelves are soon to be a thing of the past. The Westlaw site is found at http://www.westlaw.com and the Lexis site can be found at http://www.lexis.com.

Electronic News

A variety of electronic news sources are available over the Internet. The New York Times on the Web maintains a fax service at http://www.nytimesfax.com and the New York Times itself is located at http://www.nytimes.com. The New York Times is a particularly good resource because it is available early in the morning in electronic form prior to home delivery and in addition maintains a daily report on computer information in a section called Cyberspace, available only on the Web.
USA Today maintains a financial site at http://www.usatoday.com. CNN Interactive can be located at http://www.cnn.com and Microsoft's joint venture with NBC can be found at http://www.msnbc.com.

The Department of Labor has finally published "QDROs: The Division of Pensions Through Qualified Domestic Relations Order" at http://gatekeeper.dol.gov/dol/pwba/public/pubs/qdro.htm. While not purely a financial site, an important reference site for QUADRO's Qualified Domestic Relations Orders is http://www.qdro.com. One of my favorite sites for QUADRO's is found at http://www.pbgc.gov/divorce3.htm#1. While this site is for after a plan is taken over by the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.), its explanation of terms and forms is very useful. Mr. Rick Johnson, a Houston CPA, has opened a web page detailing his services for preparing QUADROs and other related work as http://www.qdrosvc.com.

Credit Information and The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

Warning: The following information if improperly used can result in civil fines and criminal penalties.

One question I am repeatedly asked is about the right in discovery to access a an opposing parties/spouses credit report from an internet source. The answer lies in examining the the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, a copy of which can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm.

One way to obtain credit information on an opposing party/spouse would be to obtain a release and authorization similar to a medical release. Additionally I believe it may for inventory and other reasons to obtain authorized credit information on your own client for discovery purposes and to accurately disclose financial information concerning assets and debt.

There are a couple of commercial internet sites available currently to obtain this information. First I recommend though you obtain a Class 2 VeriSign Digital Certificate to protect the information being transmitted over the internet. More information regarding the VeriSign Digital ID can be obtained at http://digitalid.verisign.com or http://www.verisign.com.

Then you might explore the internet credit reporting site http://www.experian.com formerly TRW. This site at the time of preparation of this paper (October 26, 1997) was temporarily down but did provide for email notification of when it would be back online. However your author found a site that would allow access to the database at http://www.qspace.com. A request for your credit report costs and Class 2 VeriSign Digital ID is less than $13.00. A sample credit report can be found at http://qspace.com/sample_report/report.html.

Experts

A search for experts over the Internet can provide the family law attorney with a significant amount of information. There are a number of sites that are helpful with regard to the location and qualification of experts. Some of my favorite sites are http://www.experts.com, which provides a database of information concerning experts and consultants in all fields; expert.www or http://www.expertpages.com, which is a directory of experts and expert witnesses and consultants and allows for expert selection by state; and Lawinfo at http://www.lawinfo.com, an online source for locating both attorneys and legal resources, including expert witnesses and private investigators. While you're are looking for experts, how about making an examination of your opposing counsel - try http://www.legal-web.com. Appraisers, which are often of interest to family law practitioners, may be located at http://www.appraiser.com.

Mental Health Resources

Because a large number of family law cases involve children or mental health issues, internet sources of information about mental health professionals and their resources can be invaluable to the family law practitioner.

As previously indicated, John M. Grohol's book, "The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online," published by The Guilford Press is an outstanding resource for mental health resources for lawyers. As you can see from a review of the following web sites, there is a tremendous amount of information available over the Internet. Mr. Grohol has provided many of the foregoing sites through his book and I strongly advise its purchase. Mr. Grohol maintains his own web site at http://www.grohol.com. An additional site for professionals is maintained at http://www.cmhc.com.

There is often an alcohol or substance abuse issue in family law cases, and there are a number of helpful sites available on the internet that contain information, legislation news and updates in these areas. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration maintains a governmental site at http://www.samhsa.gov. The previously mentioned http://www.health.org is the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information. Join Together Online at http://www.jointogether.org is another fine resource. A forensic psychiatry and law on line web site is maintained at http://ua1vm.ua.edu/~jhooper. Psychology, a referenced journal on all areas of psychology as well as cognitive science, neuroscience, behavioral biology, artificial intelligence, robotics/vision, linguistics and philosophy can be found at
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/psyc.html.

C. Drugs and Medication

The family lawyer is often called upon to examine a party's medical records and medication records. There is a vast amount of information online regarding medication and pharmacology. Some of the better sites are The Merck Manual, located at http://www.merck.com, and the Pharmaceutical Information Network site at http://pharminfo.com. The RxList, a searchable reference of over 4,000 drugs, is locaterd at http://www.rxlist.com. Finally, if you are feeling as though you are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and trauma the National Center for PTSD is located at http://www.dartmouth.edu/dms/ptsd.

Buying Computer Equipment (or Why I Hate Retail)

I hate the fact that consumers and lawyers are taken advantage of by retailers (not all) when it comes to buying law office computer equipment. Most lawyers head into an alleged computer store with little or no idea of what they want or need. Do I buy the Pentium II 450 mhz with 128 megs of memory of the Celeron at half the cost with 32 megs of memory or go against the grain and get that cute Apple Imac. Or the lawyer who is to busy and the "consulant" makes all the decisions on computer purchases.And don't get me started on service after the sale better known as "SAS". Well there is hope first if you use a consultant or go the store get a written guote. Make sure the quote gives detailed product information including if possible manufacturer's SKW numbers. Don't get a quote that says Computer $2500.00. Then do your homework (you should do this first but I know better - you're impulsive). Then the components -- and boy has that gotten easier. I use two sites to primarily look for prices. The first is http://www.shopper.com which searches across a number of wholesaler sites and gives you a listing of the lowest prices available. This site will even sort by lowest prices first. A great site saving you money and time. The second site is http://www.pricewatch.com which gives you a different format for searching but also gives you the ability to check prices against other sites. One of the largest wholesale computer web sites that reportedly even sells below cost is http://www.buy.com which has some of the best prices on the net. Once you get the quotes you are armed with the information to make an "informed" computer purchase.

Here are some sites that will help you in making online purchases. Note that many companies are supporting sites and will preference their products.

Addendum

If there is really something that makes internet travel and computer usage fun it's shareware. Although there are many definitions, it is basically a concept of trying a program and if you like it - you buy it. So to get you oriented I'll periodically point you to my favorite shareware site and other sites of interest.

http://tucows.mcp.com - one of the most complete shareware internet sites around. Look for 5 cow programs - you'll see when you get there. Enjoy.

http://www.tomshardware.com - in my opinionthe best hardware informational page on the net. Tom can tell you more about how to supercharge a system than anyone else and is a bible of information to the geeks. He provides up to date information on the latest hardware and tracks AMD, Cyrix and Intel development like no one else. If you are getting ready to purchase a new system, check this page first.

Conclusions

As you can see by this information and the attached Internet Site List for Family Lawyers, the Internet is rich with resources available and hopefully this accumulation of resources will be a valuable tool in your day to day practice of family law.

FAMILY LAW LITIGATION RESOURCES:
HOW TO FIND CASE LAW, STATUTES, INFORMATION ON
EXPERTS AND OTHER INFORMAL DISCOVERY